Okay, so far in this MBIP year of sandwich tour, we’ve only had one road trip out of Peoria and that was to Picco’s Pit and Barbecue Steakhouse in Canton with MBIP friends, Artie and Sandra. We’ve yet to hit the road with MBIP Contributing Writer, Pal and Official Wheelman, Scott Turley steering the way to a sandwich destination, but today all that changes! Scott’s going to be driving us to Green Gables, a restaurant and bar near Lake Bloomington in Hudson, Illinois! Hey...what’s that noise at the door...

Bob Dylan! Good to see you, Bob, and thanks for making that sign, but we’re waiting for someone else to show up. Maybe you can call up George Harrison and Roy Orbison and see if you can get a Traveling Wilburys reunion happening...oh wait, they’re both dead...never mind! Well, we’ll see you later, Bob, go ahead and scoot along now! Don’t forget your harmonica!

Okay, let’s try this again!

There he is, Scott Turley, the official MBIP Wheelman, time to let this road trip begin!

Okay, we’re off with Scott behind the wheel. We have to go over a bridge to get there, but it’s not as troubling for me when I’m in the passenger seat.

Here we are at Green Gables restaurant and bar. Going here was Scott’s idea, he was here over 40 years ago and wanted to see if the place has changed at all. So far it looks great from the outside, I love the Green Gables wooden chair out front! Let’s go in and take a look at what’s happening in there this afternoon!

Wow, it’s really cool in here, it’s like stepping back in time to a vintage roadside tavern! That’s Vanessa and Ashley serving us drinks up behind the bar and the menus are hanging over the bar. We decided on our lunch order and now it’s time to take a little self-guided tour in here while they prepare our order.

There’s lots of cool stuff behind the bar, the Green Gables stained glass sign is really nice and as you can see they have a nice selection of beer back there! There’s a classic Spuds MacKenzie light fixture along with a vintage Natural Light fishing beer sign, nice! There’s just one beer tap to choose from, which makes deciding easy and in honor of that choice a Budweiser Trolley spins over the seats at the bar, suspended from the ceiling!

There’s a pool table opposite the bar and a railing and stools opposite that on the far wall to sit and watch the pool games in action. A pinball machine sits in the back of the bar and there’s wooden church pew booths up in the front that are really unique. A stuffed carp hangs on the wall, along with an autographed photo from 2010 when Chicago Blackhawks Vice President, Jay Blunk brought the Stanley Cup into Green Gables for a visit!

Speaking of The Chicago Blackhawks, here’s a custom made Green Gables Hawks jersey and check out the number on it—13, the same as the number of weeks we’ve been out on the sandwich tour! You can’t plan or make up this stuff, that’s perfect!

There’s a quaint old time grocery store hooked on to the back of the restaurant. There’s all the staples you need back here including Green Gable bottle and can beer koozies! And the bulletin board features photos from 2005 here at Green Gables.

Meanwhile, back at the bar, you can see business has picked up and while checking out the grill area, I was told our orders were just about up, time to get back to the seat at the bar!

We got a couple of appetizers to start the meal off. First up was an order of corn nuggets, which are deep fried balls of dough with a creamy corn mixture inside. They were good, but I liked the cheese balls even better that came after the corn nuggets. They gave us a free sample order of them and they’re deep fried with melted pepper jack and cheddar cheese oozing out of them. A great start to our lunch so far!

And now it’s time for the main course! Here’s Ashley with our sandwiches and a side order of fries. Scott got the double cheeseburger which is the specialty of the bar and he said it was one of the best cheeseburgers he’s ever had! It certainly looks good and I wanted to order one, but I had to stay true to our sandwich tour, so I got...

The butterfly pork chop sandwich. I got it with grilled onions and topped it off with a liberal dose of mustard and pepper.

As you can see, it’s a little on the thin side, but it was a good sandwich and the bun was bakery fresh. It was no match for Scott’s cheeseburger, but what are you going to do? I’ll definitely try the burger out the next time we come here and we will be back again!

After lunch we met and chatted with Bob at the bar. Bob’s been coming here since 1962 and says the place hasn’t changed one bit! You can read about the history of Green Gables bar by clicking right here.

Cheers from Scott and I at the bar and thanks to everyone at Green Gables for a great afternoon! If you’re ever in the area, you need to stop in and soak up the atmosphere in this place, you’ll be glad you did! We’ll see you all tomorrow!

Sandwich Rating (And Cheeseburger Review by Scott)

Two and a half Dagwood Bumsteads—The Butterfly Pork Chop sandwich was good, but it was just a little above average. Both Vanessa and Ashley suggested I try the cheeseburger—which Green Gables is famous for, but I had to have a sandwich, so I let Scott sample the burger and here’s his review of it!

"I'm old enough to remember burgers before fast food. They weren't carefully measured preformed patties cooked the exact same way with the exact same carefully measured toppings. They were a fistful of fresh ground beef thrown on a hot griddle and smashed down with a spatula. They were then cooked until they "looked" done. And they were so much better than burgers you get today. Everybody has gone overboard with burgers. They put all kinds of exotic toppings on and use fancy-shmancy artisan buns and completely cover the taste of the meat. A good burger is all about the cow. Green Gable's burger is all about the cow. My cheeseburger had nothing but mustard on it and I kind of wish that I wouldn't have put that on! I don't think I'll ever eat a burger anyplace else. That cheeseburger took me back to my childhood with every bite!"—Scott Turley